In a major boost to Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign, Indian Air Force’s C-295 transport aircraft will be manufactured in the country by a consortium of European defence major Airbus and Indian conglomerate Tata.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Sunday lay the foundation stone of a manufacturing facility in Gujarat’s Vadodara for production of C-295 transport aircraft for the IAF. The project comes in Gujarat ahead of the state Assembly elections.
Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar said the facility will cater to export of the aircraft as well as for additional orders by the Indian Air Force. “This is for the first time, the C-295 aircraft will be manufactured outside of Europe. This is very significant for the domestic aerospace sector,” Kumar said.
In September last year, India sealed an over Rs 21,000 crore deal with Airbus Defence and Space to procure 56 C-295 aircraft to replace the ageing Avro-748 planes of the IAF. Under the agreement, Airbus will deliver the first 16 aircraft in ‘fly-away’ condition from its final assembly line in Seville, Spain within four years and the subsequent 40 aircraft will be manufactured and assembled by the Tata Advanced Systems (TASL) in India as part of an industrial partnership between the two companies, PTI reported.